Perfect Night
by Enide Dear
Summary: Five sweaty guys, four working showers and no yaoi in sight. I swear!
1. Chapter 1

At least there was a small upside to being held back after class for extra physical training, Cloud grumbled as he twisted the shower handle and was drenched in wonderful, hot water. The run-down, broken tiled trooper showers were empty, all of his fellow troopers having escaped the ShinRa facilities for a Friday night of boozing and partying as soon as they could. But at least, Cloud thought to himself as he twisted the knob for further heat, at least that meant he could get a hot shower after the grueling extra training. Of the ten showerheads in a row, only four gave hot water. It almost made up for being left behind and lonely on a Friday night. Almost. He sighed, and tried to relax his stiff muscles. The training sergeant insisted he was still too small to make the outtake for Soldier and pushed him ruthlessly through extra exercises. In a way it was a kind thing; Cloud was the most talented swordsman in the class and the training sergeant was damned if he'd lose a talent due to him not making the weight and height requirements. But it meant special treatment and late evenings, none of which facilitated making friends.

Cloud stared glumly at the rundown shower, just an open area with ten showerheads dripping forlornly on one of the walls, a few hooks on which to hang towels and nothing more. Such things as privacy were not for troopers. Rumors had it that some genius engineer over at the Space Program had got fed up with their lousy shower stalls and had reworked the whole deal over a weekend. Now they had functioning pluming, massage-head showers and a freaking Jacuzzi. Maybe he should have been an engineer instead. Those skills seemed rather useful now, compared to being able to whack things with a sword.

He should get out of the shower, dry off and try to find his classmates and join the party, although that was an impossible task in a huge city like Midgar. Unless you were a Turk. Another bunch of ShinRa employees with some useful skills to them. Maybe the army really was a bad choice. But the hot water felt good on his aching muscles and he didn't feel like wandering around lonely on a Friday night in Midgar again. Maybe he should just make an early night out of it. Again. Cloud closed his eyes and tried to think of nothing.

A small sound made him look up. Someone was changing out in the locker room and heading for the showers. Strange, he'd been certain he was the last trooper left.

Cloud's jaw dropped as the person walked in; not a trooper but two meter muscles topped by russet hair, the second most famous man on Gaia.

Genesis barely spared him a glance as he walked over and hung his towel on a hook before heading for the shower furthest away from Cloud. Stark naked except for some brand-name flip-flops, he was also sweaty and bruised and some of the muscles were quivering as if he'd just had a strenuous workout. He reached for the shower handle.

Cloud couldn't stop himself from blurting out:

"Not that one!"

Genesis paused, hand outstretched, and turned disquietingly beautiful mako eyes towards the trooper who felt a shiver of dread go through him despite being hosed by hot water.

"It's…it's…there's just cold water in that one, sir." Cloud managed. "Only these four have hot water." He gestured at the closest ones.

Genesis didn't answer, but stepped away before turning the shower on. Cold water hit his hand and Cloud could see a minuscular shiver go through the General; mako or not, being hit by freezing cold water when you were sweaty and aching was not pleasant. Genesis turned off the shower and stepped in closer to Cloud, taking the functioning shower furthest away from the trooper.

"Thank you, trooper." He nodded and then sighed a bit as he stuck his head under the hot water.

Cloud tried no to stare. He'd seen the First Class Soldiers before, but only on a distance. This close, the very presence of Genesis was overwhelming, the grace apparent in the smallest motion, the coiled strength just waiting to be released, the mako beauty of him.

And at the same time he seemed more human. He had a broken nail on one toe. He was shaking the shampoo bottle which made those rude farting noises they did when they were almost empty, and his russet hair was dark and slicked back over his head which somehow made him look smaller.

It was all quite awkward, and Cloud had decided to bolt for his towel and get out of there when new noises came from the locker room. A lot more noises this time. Genesis didn't' even look up, but Cloud spun around as in walked more of ShinRa's heroes.

Angeal and Zack looked similar enough to be brothers although Angeal was a freaking bear; at least twice as broad over the chest as Zack and even managing to sport some chest hair to match his beard, something neither Zack nor Genesis had. They were also both sweaty and bruised and had some minor cuts but despite the tired muscles Zack was jumping around his mentor, eagerly discussing something about training and swords to which Angeal mostly grunted answers. Spotting the trooper Angeal waved distracted and Cloud instinctivley made a salute which felt ridiculous when you were naked and sopping wet, with shampoo running down your eyes.

"Those showers are broken, sir." Cloud managed to stay a lot more polite this time as Angeal and Zack headed for the showers. "These work." He waved at the closest ones.

Angeal paused and grunted.

"Still just cold water, huh? I must have a word with management. These haven't worked since we were troopers. I appreciate the warning, trooper." He took the shower next to Genesis who was conditioning his hair. Zack jumped in next, which was the shower just next to Cloud.

"Hi there!" he grinned. "Still wanting to be a Soldier? Hang in there."

"Um, yes, I will." Cloud stared at the three men; they were all so much taller than him that he felt like a midget, at least twice as broad over the chest, and mako-perfect each in their own way. To even aspire to something like that felt ridiculous. "Why….why are you all in here?"

"First Class Soldier showers broke down and we're just off training." Zack had a head full of shampoo, rubbing vigorously. "Hey, wanna see what I learned today? Assault Twister!" With no warning he spun around on his heel, splattering the three others with shampoo suds to loud protests. "Wasn't that awesome?!"

"Why are you still here, trooper?" Angeal didn't have the kind of scented shampoo and shower gel as Genesis had, but a normal kind of hard bar soap that Cloud recognized from home; it was the cheap but effective brand his mother used to buy.

"Extra training, sir. To put on weight." He couldn't look at Angeal's heavily muscles yet perfectly proportioned body when he said it.

"Oh, I've heard about you." Angeal rubbed at his hair. "Cloud Strife, isn't it?"

Cloud could just gape. A First Class Soldier had *heard about him?!*

"Yeah, he's Cloud." Zack grinned, coming to his rescue.

"Best in your class at sword," Angeal mused as he drew on his recollection. "Need to work on materia use and ranged weapons. And need to put on some muscles."

"Well, he is rather small but that's not necessarily a bad thing," Genesis shrugged. "Small and fast makes for a difficult target to hit. And once you get to Third Class Soldier grade, ranged weapons are useless anyway. You are better of spending that time learning how to use materia. I can give you some tips later if you want."

Cloud's head was spinning. Not only had the First Class Soldiers heard of him, they were offering advice. And training! Surely this was all a cruel dream. Perhaps Luxiere had managed to hit him in the head with a training sword.

"I, uh, I would love to, sir!" If it was just a dream he might as well take advantage of it.

"I do owe you one for warning me about the shower," Genesis nodded, looking at him for the first time. "So you are Cloud Strife? You are smaller than I expected."

"And still too skinny!" Zack hip-checked the gawking cadet's scrawny hip. "Hey, we're going out for burgers and beers after this, wanna join?"

A dream. Most definitely a dream.

"Of course!"

"Just don't expect us to pay for it. We don't have the Turks salary." Angeal mumbled, half under water.

"Maybe we should form a Union?" Zack suggested.

"Oh, Lazard would hate that," Genesis smirked.

"I'm not sure four people are a Union." Angeal shook his head.

The bickering would have continued if not for the fifth person entering the room. This time there were no sounds, nothing to alert to his presence. Suddenly he was just *there* and everything and everyone else seemed to fade into the background.

Sephiroth didn't ignore the trooper like Genesis did, but he didn't greet him like Angeal had done either. Instead he just stared, with those cold inhuman eyes, for what must have been five seconds but felt like an eternity. Cloud didn't feel the urge to salute. He felt the urge to run and hide, or possibly whack with a sword which would have been stupid beyond proportion.

Sephiroth wasn't sweaty. He wasn't bruised, or bleeding from small nicks, or had trembling muscles. He looked just as cool and detached as any of the other time Cloud had caught a glance of him. He looked as graceful standing still as Genesis did when moving, stronger than Angeal and….

"I see you left the cold showers to me." Sephiroth grumbled, sounding like a pouty teenager.

"You can have mine, sir." Cloud breathed, but Sephiroth didn't acknowledge him. Instead he went over to an empty shower and turned it on.

Ice cold water hit pale skin with almost a hiss but Sephiroth's face betrayed nothing of discomfort. Cloud's eyes went huge and he couldn't help them from straying. Nope, the cold water had no effect whatsoever.

Genesis snorted.

"Showoff."

Sephiroth ignored him and emptied a whole bottle of shampoo over his head before nodding at Cloud.

"Who is he?"

"He's Cloud." Zack explained. "He's joining us for food later."

"Is he?" Sephiroth said coldly, rubbing up lather on his head.

"Don't be an ice queen, Sephiroth. Which reminds me, do *not* wear that blue shirt tonight. It does nothing for your complexion except make you look half dead." Genesis started to move out of the shower to towel off.

"You were the one who insisted I try some colour in my wardrobe. When I put on a red shirt people thought I'd burned in the sun. When I took the green one I looked car sick. I'm sticking to black." He swung his hair over his shoulder, meticulously rubbing shampoo into every strand.

"C'mon," Zack grinned and patted Cloud's shoulder. "He's going to take forever with that hair, he always does. Plenty of time for you to run to your dorm and put on some clothes. Don't take the uniform. Angeal gets all wonky when you wear a uniform when off duty."

"That uniform represents your honor…." Angeal, having the least hair of all of them to fuss over, had already started to put clothes back on but was interrupted by a chorus of 'boo' from the other three Soldiers and slaps with wet towels as soon as the word 'honor' came over his lips.

"It's dishonorable to take about honor once you've clocked out to," Genesis used a very small Fire to blow-dry his hair. He really had amazing control over that element.

Cloud felt like giggling. They were all so, well, so *normal*. Not the high and mighty First Class Soldiers. Just a bunch of guys getting ready for a night on the town, enjoying their freedom. And they knew about him. And had invited him along, almost as if he belonged.

His heart was soaring when he ran for his room to change. Maybe this would be a perfect night after all.

Review and I will continue their Perfect Night!


	2. Chapter 2

It was strange to see the First Classers out of uniform. Somehow their identities seemed so bound to the red leather coat, the black leather and the ShinRa standard uniforms that the regular pants and shirts made them look almost as normal people. At least for a given value of normal.

Sephiroth was sulking in a yellow shirt that someone had made him wear. With his ultra-pale complexion, the yellow colour was reflected on his face and hair and made him look vaguely ill. It was probably Genesis doing; the russet man himself looked relaxed and yet utterly fashionable in a dark-red short-sleeved shirt, his outrageous earring still in place. Zack was wearing a black t-shirt with some band logo on that Cloud didn't recognize. Angeal had only put on a v-ringed t shirt, but with the pecs cleavage showing like that, it was probably all he needed.

Cloud tagged along, trying to stay close to Zack, as the group hit the town. He was a head shorter than even Genesis and felt grossly out of place, but the easy bantering and chatter soon drew him in. Except for Sephiroth who was mostly silent. Cloud didn't know if that was the General's normal behavior or if he was irritated by the trooper's presence. Or maybe he was just uncomfortable in the yellow shirt.

"Let's grab something to eat first," Angeal said as the garish lights of upper-plate Midgard surrounded them. People stopped to stare after them all the time, but the four Soldiers didn't seem to even notice. "There a new steak house over at the Loveless Avenue."

"Too much meat. We'll just get sluggish and tired all evening." Genesis shook his head. "Let's try that sushi place Lazard is always talking about."

"You're not having this argument again." Sephiroth growled. "I outrank you and I suggest that we…"

"If you suggest a Wutai restaurant again, I'll go AWOL on your pale ass." Genesis snapped.

"Me to." Angeal muttered.

"I won't!" Zack chirped. "I like spicy food!"

"….that we let the trooper decide." Sephiroth ended rather lamely after fumbling for a way out for a few seconds.

Four pairs of mako eyes turned to Cloud, each one more brilliant than any neon sign. Cloud felt like kicking Sephiroth in the shin; how the Hell was he supposed to find an answer to this?!

"Um…Gongaga Taco?" He managed.

"Fine with me," Angeal nodded pleased and Genesis hummed in agreement. Zack was already running down the street toward the restaurant. Sephiroth sniffed.

"Your proposal is acceptable."

Cloud heaved a huge sigh of relief.

They ordered an absolutely ridiculous amount of food and set about devouring it. Cloud started to suspect that much of ShinRa's revenues went to feeding Soldier metabolisms, although he did his own very best as his belly reminded him about a day full of training. Zack finished first and went to flirt with a girl at another table, promising to show her 'all that GonGaga had to offer, wink wink.'

"That's why Zack will make a good First Class Soldier," Angeal pointed with a nacho. "He never knows when to quit."

"Even when he's grossly out of his league." Genesis rolled his eyes at the pretty girl who just laughed at him. Cloud didn't understand why – didn't she recognize Zack as a Soldier, one of the most famous men on Gaia? Maybe she did and just didn't care because she finished her own food and left the puppy stranded and desolate in her wake. That lasted about five seconds before he bounced off to the next girl.

"And he always bounces back," Sephiroth added with a grunt. "Usually in some unexpected direction." He nodded over at Zack who was now trying to chat up a pretty guy.

Apparently the guy wasn't impressed either because once the last piece of salsa was obliterated with all the ruthlessness of a battlefield, Zack caught up with them.

"No luck?" Cloud asked as they headed out into the warm, polluted summer night.

"Nope. But the night is still young." Zack grinned his easy grin.

"Huh. People in Midgar must be really used to seeing Soldiers." Cloud shrugged. "I just figured you First Classers could get anyone."

Zack gave him a grave and very un-puppy like look.

"I guess. But sometimes you just wanna get liked for being you, you know. No Shinra attached."

Cloud fell silent.

Not using your Soldier-power to impress random people in taco restaurants was one thing, but apparently it didn't apply to nightclub door men. The four Soldiers ignored the long line of people waiting outside and simply sauntered up to the door were the door man almost fell over himself to remove the velvet rope. Cloud tagged along like a small dinghy in the wake of four race boats.

Inside there were loud music and flashing lights, and people in various states of undress dancing. Zack gave a whooping yell and entered the throng on the dance floor, pulling Cloud along. He only had time to see Genesis drift towards a quieter booth where some people were having an animated discussion about something, Angel heading for the bar and Sephiroth…simply disappeared. The music was loud, the press of beautiful people dancing and jumping and pressing in on all sides were intoxicating. Cloud let himself get swept away.

When he emerged an hour or so later he was absolutely exhausted; whatever energy he'd got from the tacos it wasn't enough to make up for a whole day of training. But he was grinning from ear to ear in happy excitement even so. Flopping down on a soft couching he searched for the other Soldiers, mostly out of curiosity. He quickly found Genesis some way down the room; he was all but surrounded by eager, fawning fangirls and fanboys, most of which were fashionably androgynous enough that you really couldn't tell which was which. Genesis himself with his earring and shirt was of course the most fashionably androgynous of them all and positively radiant with the attention. Maybe he should go over there, Cloud thought, just to make sure the Soldiers didn't forget about him when it was time to go home. He hoped he could hitch a ride with them; he was too broke and too tired to walk back to ShinRa.

"Don't." A voice next to him said. "You'd destroy their little gathering with your overabundance of testosterone. I'm not even kidding."

Cloud spun and realized he was sitting next to Angeal who had a scantily dressed woman on one arm and a scantily dressed man on the other. Neither man nor woman looked androgynous by any stretch of the word.

"Um, thanks?" Cloud hesitated. "I kinda thought…" well, the gossip magazines all claimed, was more like it, "that you and Genesis were a couple?"

Angeal made a face.

"We're both Soldiers. We've been in field condition together far too many times for any romantic feelings to survive. It kind of happens when you have to crap together in the woods on a daily basis."

"I suppose so." Cloud did notice that Angeal didn't deny that they had been lovers before, though. "Um, where is Sephiroth?"

"Don't know. He can take care of himself. Usually reappears at about time to go home. The Turks usually sends a car around 3. Or when they think we're too drunk."

"There are Turks watching us?!" Cloud gaped. He hadn't seen any.

Angeal gave him a funny look.

"There are always Turks watching."

Nicely buzzed on beer and colourful drinks, Cloud went in search for Sephiroth. He started to look for any large gathering of people like Genesis had around him, and after that he looked –discreetly – for any secluded nooks like then one Angeal had gone to with his two partners.

Even so, he would have missed the general if it hadn't been for a sudden flash of silver in a dark corner. Cloud stopped and almost stared.

Sephiroth stood in a quiet corner, all alone, a beer in his hand and his eyes on the floor. If it had at all been possible for someone who was two meters tall and stunningly beautiful, he would have looked awkward and alone. As it was, he looked aloof and a bit intimidating. Glances were thrown his way – many of them – but no one approached. *Ice queen* Cloud recalled Genesis calling him, and that was how he looked. He was, Cloud realized, too perfect. The other Soldiers were magnificent each in their way, but their vices were well known. Genesis was vain and a bit obsessive. Angeal was annoyingly cheap for someone who must be making half a fortune. Zack Fair had the attention span of a puppy. For all their superpowers, they remained basically human. Sephiroth….was not.

Cloud stepped up to him and the emerald gaze latched on to him immediately, half annoyed and half something else. Cloud fumbled for words.

"So…you don't dance?" He managed.

Sephiroth blinked as if caught off guard.

"I did, once." He didn't speak loudly but he didn't have to. His voice carried over music and people. "Everyone….stopped. Stopped dancing. Just looked at me. And then they applauded." His lips twitched. "As if I was a show for them."

Cloud couldn't even begin to imagine the grace and deadly beauty that must be Sephiroth dancing. He would have stared to. He tried to smile.

"I would have thought you'd be run over with fans in a place like this."

"I scare them away. I'm not good at small talk. If there is someone from the Silver Elite in a club then sometimes I have someone to talk to for a while. But they inevitably post it on their fansite the next day." He shrugged.

"Then…why do you come here?" Cloud blurted out.

Sephiroth stared at him, like a hawk on a mouse. Cloud suddenly recalled that Sephiroth hadn't exactly seemed to like him even before he started this conversation that sounded more and more like an interrogation.

"Do you like my shirt?" Sephiroth asked as an answer.

It was Cloud's turn to stare. The black leather pants, the yellow shirt reflected on pale skin and silver hair…Sephiroth had probably got a million compliments on it already tonight. He probably would have gotten that no matter what he was wearing. No, he wasn't fishing for compliments. He wanted the truth. And that would take courage.

"You kind of look like the world's tallest banana," Cloud said truthfully.

Sephiroth didn't splutter his beer, but he almost dropped the bottle. And then a small, genuine smile crept up his lips, his eyes.

"I do, don't I?" he chuckled. "Genesis tries so hard to make me look more faulty and human. And yet no one but he and Angeal and Zack ever have the guts to say it." He kept staring, and Cloud realized he *wasn't* staring. He simply didn't blink very often. "And you, now."

"Is that why you wear it?"

"It…makes Genesis happy if I do. People do strange things for our friends sometimes, don't they?" It was a genuine question.

"I suppose we do. I once licked a toad on a dare. Threw up for hours."

They stood quiet for a while, watching people dance and have fun, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable anymore. It was easy spotting the other three Soldiers; Zack was still dancing (how he could possibly have the energy for it was beyond Cloud) and jumping around, his spikey head poking up over the throng every now and then when the mako made him bounce almost two meters up. Angeal was returning from wherever he had been with his partners, looking smug if slightly discomforted and Genesis….

Genesis was involved in something that was a bit more serious than a debate about lyrics. His fists were clenched, his eyes burning with anger and contempt and he was screaming something at another man, although what he said was impossible to hear over the loud music.

The man opposite him was huge, broader than even Angeal and built like a bull, head lowered and no neck and all. He was wearing some kind of biker clothes and his arms were covered in ugly prison tattoos. Although Genesis was taller, the man seemed to loom over him. Cloud felt a nervous spasm clutch at his belly.

Genesis made a face of utter disgust and turn his back on the man who put a heavy hand on his shoulder to force him back. But Genesis shook it off with the same ease as if it had been a child's, leaving the man too look even more ridiculed.

Face lit with anger, the huge man grabbed ferociously after the one vulnerable place on Genesis' body – the dangling, alluring earring.

Cloud was moving before he'd made a conscious thought. He could see it all flash by in the imagination of his mind; the earring being ripped off along with the earlobe, the cry of pain and outrage, the blood splattered on shirt and skin and russet hair. He knew even as he started moving that he'd be too late to do anything about it, but something inside him told him he had to try.

A hand grabbed him from behind and he was pulled back, almost landing on his ass before regaining his foothold. Sephiroth looked down on him.

"Watch." He said coldly.

The big bruiser caught Genesis earring and pulled with all the strength of thick, corded muscles.

Nothing happened.

Genesis shook his head as if shaking away a fly and ripped the fragile looking jewelry right out of the man's hand. With his fucking *earlobe*!

Cloud's knees felt weak.

The Turks didn't send a car, they sent a limo. Cloud was pretty drunk by the time and not entirely sure who guided him into the fancy vehicle with the soft leather seats, the mini bar and the open sun roof through which all five of them were currently sticking up their heads, drinking from bottles and singing. He wasn't sure what they were singing either as half the words seemed to be wutainese but that didn't stop him from bawling along. It was something obscene about a hedgehog, and what you shouldn't to with them no matter how lonely you were. He *did* notice however that Sephiroth couldn't carry a tune if he'd had it in a bucket, which was reassuring and he'd be sure to tell him the next day. He was sure Sephiroth would be pleased to hear it.

There was no possible way this night could have been any better.

The limo tore through the streets of Midgar in the early pre-dawn, past a bunch of tired looking guys who was walking the long, long way back towards ShinRa. Cloud caught a glint of familiar trooper faces, the same that had abandoned him earlier that evening, as the limo with the singing First Class Soldiers rushed by them. From the look on their gawking faces they saw him too, riding a Turk-driven limo with the most famous men on Gaia.

The perfect night just got better.

A/N: Was that Tifa and Barret that Angeal got it on with?! Omg...


End file.
